Catholics, who account for close to a quarter of the U.S. adult population, comprise a key religious group that both sides have tried to woo. In closely contested swing states such as Ohio or Florida the Catholic vote could make a difference.

The web site is sure to stoke controversy in Catholic circles with this statement: “Is Barack Obama really pro-life? The answer is ‘yes.’ Looking through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, Senator Obama has spent his entire career striving for the common good. He supports health care programs that will cover all Americans, a living wage for working families, and solutions that allow distressed families to stay in their homes.”

It goes on to say that Obama, a strong advocate like his party of abortion rights, will reduce the number of abortions by promoting health care for pregnant women and infant care.

Abortion is one of the most polarizing issues in America and official Catholic doctrine on the matter is clear: the church regards it as murder.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, a senior American in the Vatican, recently said the Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death’” because of its choices on bioethical questions and abortion.

Echoing several U.S. bishops, Burke accused the Democratic Party’s most high-profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — of misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.

McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are both staunchly opposed to abortion rights and the Republican Party often does well with conservative Catholics who vote largely on this issue.

But the flock itself is far more divided on the issue which can help Obama build on the leads he already has in most national polls with Catholic voters.

Obama is for late term abortion! How can any Catholic vote for him? I am ashamed for any Catholic that votes for him. Biden and Pelosi call themselves Catholic, and yet they are for abortion, Health care for women is not the issue. Choice for convenience is the issue.

Isnt this rather hypocritical ?? Catholics who dont believe in abortion are now lining up for Obama who believes in all kinds of abortions and doesnt want his daughters “PUNISHED” with babies ??? You people are whats wrong with this country and why you will face the wrath of God. Just like Nancy Pelosi trying to say that the Catholic Church is not clear on abortion. Shame on all of you – you are not Christians, or Catholics – just a bunch of misguided people who pick what parts of religious doctrine you believe in and then try to justify your twisted views on the others. God help you for you know not what you do when you tell people to vote for this con artist.

This is one reason I no longer support Catholic or other Christian churches. They dwell on abortion rights yet ignore other human rights & support wars that cause much more loss of life. BULLETS STOP A BEATING HEART TOO !!!!
Republican policies are heartless, yet Church leaders promote them. Same old M.O. churches have followed for centuries …align with leaders that line their pockets the most, and make sure the flock follows them.

I am a Catholic and I support Obama! I am not alone. Many in my church also feel the same way that I do. In this election I see a vate for Obama as being more in line with Pro-Life than a vote for McCain.

I thought Christians were not supposed to judge people on their choices, as that is the sole job of God?

And if a person votes solely about abortion, it is a sad misguided vote.

If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office.
– Theodore Roosevelt,

Catholics have little choice this election. On the one hand, they can either choose the McCain/Bush party that will start more wars and cause more killing but play lip service to abortion (Bush did nothing, even about partial birth abortions which is infanticide by any standards — read staunch humanist pro-choicer Peter Singer. Unlike Bush. McCain is pro-abortion. Palin holds no power.).

OTOH they can choose the Obama party which will hold the status quo but focus on peace and humanitarian issues that are important to Catholics.

It’s a no-brainer. Catholics will just need to find other avenues to push back on partial birth abortions, and use Aquinas-like reasoning to get people to understand why late term abortions are no different.

Screw what the catholics believe.It’s a women’s right to keep the baby or not.Government is using religion to divide people.If religion is abolished you can see the unity within minds of people. God bless USA

I don’t want to judge anybody (only God will), but my questions are:how can we consider ourselves as Catholics/
Christians if our actions does not reflect Christian values? Is Christianity heading into a wrong direction?

The question here is not whether Obama is a Catholic or not, or whether he follows the teachings of the Catholic Church or not, but whether Catholics who are morally obliged to oppose abortion (See John Paul II’s Gospel of Life) as an intrinsic evil are free to vote for a man who supports abortion at any time during pregnancy and who even voted in favor of infanticide (when an abortion fails, and the child is born alive, Obama said the living child should be left to die). Any Catholic who thinks this man is going to reduce the number of abortions is simply deluded.

The gift of the founding fathers is the separation of church and state. We must worry when any religion tries to force its belief system upon the whole population. If you, in Catholic practice, choose not to have an abortion, that is your business and your right. But you have no right to dictate to others who may not share your values or beliefs what they can or cannot do. Pro-choice means exactly that, choice. Since the doctrine of abstinence doesn’t work (just ask Sarah Palin), greater emphasis upon and easier access to birth control would make abortion less likely of a choice as it wouldn’t be needed in the first place.

Obama is not for universal late term abortions, only ones in which the mother’s life may be in danger, or in the case of incest, which is also an abomination in the eyes of God. To condem Obama’s stance on this is backwards. If a mother’s life is in danger because of the baby in her womb, should we not do everything we can to save the mother, even if it means sacrificing the unborn baby? I agree with Obama on this. If a mother’s life is in danger, her life takes prescedence over the unborn child who will likely not survive anyway.

The so called neo-conservatives, whom McCain bravely fought against in 2000 and later sold his soul to, do not stand for my values as a Catholic. Their support for a baseless war, torture and death penalty makes them the real party of death.

If anyone thinks Jesus is siding with the GOP against the marginalized millions—the unemployed man in Pennsylvania who got laid off and had to pack his machinery to be sent to China; the uninsured mother who was denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition; or a widowed mother grieving over a son lost in Iraq—it is you who has some serious explaining to do, not Kmiec. And to suggest that it is a duty of a Catholic to condemn Barack Obama and anyone who supports him is a betrayal of the same values that Jesus gave us.

@anbudanrc2010, as Beth commented voting has to be done according to one’s conscious and one’s conscious is formed from one’s religion and world view. All people have a world view, including you.

The ancient Greek world was extremely pro-choice. Killing infants was okay in their world view and we have several ancient letters with cavalier instructions like “If it’s a boy, keep it. Otherwise, kill it”. Award winning Bio-ethicist Peter Singer asserts that infanticide is okay because partial birth abortions (which can happen only a few months before birth) are okay. That’s his world view and I expect he’d vote for anyone who promoted that extreme pro-choice party line. Most people would be horrorized at that world view, but he is consistent. The key question for most people really isn’t choice, it’s when does a fetus become a baby. It’s a hard problem. Pro-choicers say it doesn’t happen until late in the pregnancy while pro-lifers place it early. Who is right?

Fortunately former Pro-Choice Feminist, Frederica Mathewes-Green has found some common ground: “A woman wants an abortion like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its leg. Abortion is not a sign that women are free, but a sign that they are desperate.”

This is a common point between Feminists on both sides of the issue. I challenge you to find a Feminist who would disagree. It sounds like Obama wants to attach himself to this idea, which is progress.

With 3,600 aborations EVERYDAY, show me one war where that many Americans were killed! How can you people use that as an excuse to vote for Obama.
Let us not forget what potential harm he can do to the US with his extreme liberal choices for the Supreme Court. His choices will shape our country for generations to come. If for no other reason, this would keep me from voting for Obama.

Catholics have tremendous choice in this election if they look at the POLITICAL election – separated from RELIGION – as our founding religious/political leaders suggested.
for all the screaming this country does regarding other countries religious politics we sure do try to engage in an awful lot of religious politics. Once again, the far right living in glass houses throwing stones.

“Catholics for Obama”? That’s an oxymoron. Any faithful Catholic, not someone who is simply masquerading as a Catholic, who aids and abets infanticide by voting for Obama and Biden has excommunicated themselves latae sententiae and placed in serious peril the eternal destination of their soul. As Scripture teaches, a person will have to answer for their behavior in this life during their particular judgment and voting for a pro-infanticide Marxist like Obama is not worth an eternity serving Lucifer. God won’t be grading on a curve.

I do not believe in abortion, however I do believe in birh control. If more women and men, young ladies and young men practiced birth control via the pill, condoms or other methods we would see a huge decline in teenage pregnancies, and an even bigger decline in abortions. Sarah Palin promotes abstinance ONLY. Will it did not work for her and it did not work for her teen-age daughter as both did not practice abstinance. So, what is Sarah’s teaching?? Do as I say and not as my daughter and I do?? She is a hypocrite!! The best way to go is by using the birth contols of your choice. Abstinance is pretty difficult when you are already engaged in sexual activities. Whether we like it or not, people more and more engage in such activity so why not protect yourselves against getting pregnant?? Makes the most sense to me.

By the way, IF Sarah is such a regligious person, what was she thinking of when engaging in premarital sex? Isn’t this against the tenents of her church as well?? “Thou shalt not commit adultry”. Guess she chooses and picks which of her church rules she will follow and which ones she won’t. Kind of how she picks and chooses who is American and who is anti-American?? Talk about a hypocrite!!

4njvotes. Our founding fathers NEVER intended there to be a separation between religion and the governed/governor’s. The exact opposite, they very intentionally intended a plurality, which means they expected all religious people to use and take their deep held religious conscience into the voting box, and into their governmental responsibilities. The constitutional provisions regarding religion have more to do with protecting religion from government, not the otherway around. They didn’t want what happened in England, where the government was dictating religious precepts, belief, practice etc… The idea that the founding fathers of this country (U.S.) wanted government to be free ‘from’ religion, is a fabricated concept, and does not hold up to historical scrutiny.

If you value life…if you believe that ALL life is God’s creation…then you CANNOT vote for OBAMA bacause he does not value the lives of innocent, unborn children. The littlest amongst us who do not have a voice of their own has nobody to protect them …not even their own Mothers! We cannot allow this MURDER of innocent lives to continue! As a catholic, I cannot…in good conscience vote for Obama. So many…billions of innocent lives are at stake here!!!!

48 million lives have been lost to Roe V Wade…there is no other moral issue we face of greater importance than than abortion. Voting for Obama is no different than voting for Adolf Hitler because he promised to improve the economy. We will all have to give an accounting of ourselves one day.

Catholics, we cannot support elective abortion that attacks a living human being and continue to call ourselves Catholic. Killing a child for convenience or because the child is imperfect is intrinsically evil in ALL cases, and the “rape” that pro-abortionists whine about is very, very rare.

I understand Catholics’ desire to support an intelligent politician who supports strong programs for social justice. To that end, if you choose to ignore the abortion issue and vote for Obama, I understand, but you cannot back away from the Pro-Life position and truly be Catholic.

50 million dead innocent babies later and we still have so-called Catholics voting Democrat. Where would the Democrat’s platform of murder be without the Catholic vote which make up 24% of the American population? The blood is on the hands of Catholics and their 25-year voting record. It’s time you put your egos aside and worry about your own salvation.

If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an empahtic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office.
-Theodore Roosevelt {REPUBLICAN}

“Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.”
–Thomas Jefferson{Principal Author of the Declaration of Independence}

“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.” – John Adams{2nd President, yet another Founding Father}

I am a Catholic for Obama. Although neither candidate is completely pro-life I feel that mothers and their babies will be helped more with him as president. For 30 years mostly republican administrations have not done anything to prevent more abortions besides talking about it. They really don’t want to kill the parents (who partake in abortion) or throw them in jail.

The choice for Catholics is SIMPLE!…. Choose LIFE! Choose GOD!….If you are thinking of choosing OBAMA…then you can STOP calling yourselves Catholics…you have turned your backs on your beliefs and allowed innocent lives to be sacrifed for the sake of economy, false freedom, equality etc…. NOTHING is more IMPORTANT than LIFE!!!!

Mary….
You are not Catholic! You are an OBAMALIC!!
Go back and read your post.”Mothers and their babies will
be helped more with him as president”. Try telling that
to the baby who just had his/her brains sucked out in a partial birth Abortion, or a baby who was left to die alone in a room after a botched partial birth abortion.
Also in your post,”Republican administrations have not done anything to prevent more abortions besides talking about it.” And Mary, my question to you. What have you done about it? …………

It’s truly unbelievable how so many “intellectual’ humans do not see reality. An abortion is a means to do something; and that something is called MURDER, or infanticide, and that fact generally is recognized by any thinking person. No woman has a right to murder a child living in her womb, nor the right to murder it after it is born.
In any intellectual understanding we must see that killing a living human, regardless if it is in the womb or already outside it’s , is MURDER since that killing is never justified as one might be in war, by police, or my me if I have to do it as the last resort to protect my life or my families life. The Catholic Church has made a big blunder over the years by not calling our position by the right name; We are “against murders”, while the other side is not pro-choice, but “pro-murders”. What we need today to stop this confusion over what is really taking place, is to have a renewed Catholic Church movement to focus on the correct terms in discussing these abortions; otherwise, all who now write as if they are acceptable will never see the light due to the cloud of satins smoke that has dulled their rational thinking. I’ve seen interviews of college women who never once thought of abortions as the actual killing of a unborn human; and once it was explained to them why it is “murder” it was like their eyes were opened. Today, when I see so many as have written here and other places, it is as though this is Germany in the 1940′s where the solders who assisted at those camps completely lost their moral understanding of what was actually taking place.

Can a Christian vote with a clear conscience for a candidate who supports legalized abortion? The important words to this question are “clear conscience.” Examine the ramifications of voting for someone who is an accomplice to the murder of innocent pre-born children and then examine your own conscience. As a supporter of Obama, you will be an accomplice in the sin of child-killing. Don’t be deceived. Consider this: Would you have voted for Herod?

I am very confused that anyone who call themselves “Christian” can tell other people what to do with their lives and judge others. Now we are quoting the scriptures like the other religion. Senator McCain is for Catholic hospital to perform abortion. All these people that are pro life when was the last time any one of you help out a single mom? When my husband abandonned me with two kids the church,the outreach group, were not there for me or any single mother that I know. How hypocritical of you who point the fingers on pro choice people and think you are better than them. Ms Palin and her family rejected the Catholic church. Let’s pray so the Holy Spirit can tell us how to vote not the people who pass themselves as beeing better than others.

How about we pray the Holy Spirit to find out how to vote instead of listen to people who obviously do not care about two third of the population. When was the last time YOU ( Pro-Life person) helped a single mom that is not related to you, did not look like you, even turned around in church and smile to someone that you did not know and seems to have a difficult time with a child? As a Catholic I will pray and then vote.I will not listen to what the Pharisees of our church say. Thank you

Rita, to answer your question:
I am a Catholic, and Pro-Life all the way. What have I done to help out single mothers? Well, for a year and 1/2, I worked at a FREE childcare facility for single moms under the age of 26 (a charity set up by none other than Catholic Charities, mind you). I then became a certified FertilityCare Practitioner, and I teach young, single women frequently- I teach them how to monitor the signs of their fertility so that they can avoid pregnancy naturally without poisoning their bodies with oral contraceptives.
I also work in collaboration with a group that offers free ultrasound and counseling to women contemplating abortion (most of these women, too, are single or unmarried). In 80-90% of the cases, these women change their minds and keep their babies.
I also pray nightly for all mothers who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy- I pray that they find the help and the education they need to know that whether they end their child’s life or not, they are already mothers.

And please don’t feel I am singling you out. You asked a question that I thought was pertinent (and a good point- people shouldn’t just talk the talk, they should walk the walk). No one is “better” than others, and judgement should not be passed.

On an even more personal note, I plan to continue helping out women who struggle with an unwanted pregnancy well into my future… I will offer to adopt their babies from them if they truly feel they have no other choice. And no, I’m not just saying that. As it turns out, my husband and I have been struggling with infertility now for over 2 years… so I would be BLESSED to be given the lives that these women feel they need to throw away.

That’s pathetic, you can’t be Catholic (or Christian, Jewish, or Muslim for that matter) and honestly believe in pro-abortion and pro gay marriage. What’s happening is that Catholics are being corrupt by secular-American culture which teaches you should leave your values in the church and pick and choose what you want to believe in. Don’t let Obama fool you, he just wants your vote!

Anyone who calls themselves Catholic but supports abortion is a fool. You are known by the friends you keep and by your actions which speak louder than words (such as I am a catholic). Senator Obama is pro-death, calling for the death of the innocent under the guise of pro-choice. Choice for what? Choice to kill the unborn. You people who think that an Obama administration will be about peace and justice are kidding yourself. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – starts with life.

In 2003 John Paul II also became a prominent critic of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. In his 2003 State of the World address the Pope declared his opposition to the invasion by stating, “No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity.”
War and abortion are evils. McCain wants to continue war in Iraq which will mean more troops sent overseas. Where is he going to get his soldiers????? No choice but the DRAFT!!!!!!!!! A least families have a better opportunity for input when abortion is involved. They can intervene….speak to the person, send them to a religious leader (priest, minister, counselor, et al). NOBODY will have control once the government gets hold of your 18 year old SON or DAUGHTER!!!! Your child, niece, nephew, grandchild will learn how to KILL and might be killed in the process!!!! That is what soldiers are trained to do……KILL… bombs, guns, artillery. MASS DESTRUCTION!!! Countless children, pregnant women, innocent bystanders have been MURDERED in a war based on LIES to the American people. REPUBLICANS CRY PRO-LIFE when they want your vote. Nothing is ever done. REMEMBER !!!! Abortion laws vary from state to state… It is a complicated process with many interest groups interceding. CATHOLIC FOR OBAMA!!!!!!!!! AMEN!!!!!!!

Nobody is pro-abortion! but expecting a 12 year old who is raped to have a baby is just as inhuman. Or expecting a mother who has unforeseen health crisis to risk her life. These things are the business of the mother, her god, the doctor and the people who love them, not society.

McCain`s is a war monger…….. someone who sounds very vinditive and timid…….. he likes to bomb his way through problems (BOMB FIRST ASK QUESTIONS LETTER ATTITUDE)…….. THATS WHY HE TALKS MUCH ABOUT HIS EXPERIANCE AND THE SCARS TO PROVE IT (PRO BUSH)…….. AMERICANS BE WARNED…… WITH McCAIN, YOU CANNOT TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS…….PLEASE NO MORE WARS

How can a practicing Catholic, support a candidate who supports abortion. Just because he is says all the right things and promises good things for all else…if he approves of killing an unborn child…that is murder. What good is a “good life” if it is denied to another human being through no choice of “theirs”.

I find it apalling that people can call themselves Catholic, when they no longer even know what it means to be called a Catholic. “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men.” Mark 7:6-7 Jesus has spoken to us regarding who truly follows Him and who is truly Catholic : ” By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.” Matthew 7:16-20 When we begin to follow the words of men, and not of God…we are in deep trouble.” “And why call you me, Lord, Lord; and do not the things which I say?” Luke 6:46 “the time will come when men will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own lusts, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and turn aside rather to fables.” 2nd Timothy 4:3-4
Tonite, November 4, 2008, those of us who are truly Catholic and believe in LIFE, mourn, not only for the loss of 50,000,000 American infants, and the forecoming of the murder of still more, but also for those lost Catholics and Christians who no longer see the truth, those who have been caught up into the world and it’s false values of money, power and prestige and have forgotten Jesus and the precious gift of LIFE.

you are right catherine one reason the lord came back was to try to correct peoples focus.i think sadly an example was when he was talking to the woman at the well,she remarked samarians and our ancesters worship on that mountain,but the jews say we have to worship in jerusalem.the lord replied they don t know who they worship.to me thats an example of many people,the conception is that any pray where there is a mention of a god, automatically go,s up to the throne room,my bible says the man who loves god,god knows him.the reality is to love someone you have to know them,thats the difference.god bless you sister.

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I cover commodities in southerrn Africa, a region that I have returned to after spending over four years covering religion, politics and the Great Recession in America. I am a Canadian citizen and grew up in Nova Scotia.